Maybe I’m just cynical, but could it be possible the NYT started a wine club as a ruse to lure full-page ads from the WSJ wine club? Certainly that would be smarter than trashing JC Penney with the “Mouthpiece Theater” of fashion snark. But there really is something unseemly about it. The hack’s predecessor could be a sumbitch to deal with, and still I have to say I not just read but enjoyed all his columns and only understood why after a wine flack complained that “he doesn’t move product.” Once upon a time, journalism was about illuminating a subject, elevating a reader’s understanding or at the very least purely informing the populace. Now Señor Slim and his ilk are breathing down newspapers’ back offices. The only surprise is that the paper did not start a mezcal-of-the-month club. Although marijuana of the month, come to think of it, would save journalism.